OF SELBORNE 209 



strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage from 

 a natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John 

 White, late vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet pub- 

 lished : — 



" In the year 1 770, a vine, which grew on the east-side of my 

 " house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for 

 " years past, was suddenly overspread on all the woody branches 

 " with large lumps of a white fibrous substance resembling spiders' 

 " webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very clammy quality, 

 "sticking fast to every thing that touched it, and capable of 

 "being spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be 

 " the product of spiders, but could find none. Nothing was to 

 "be seen connected with it but many brown oval husky shells, 

 " which by no means looked like insects, but rather resembled 

 "bits of the dry bark of the vine. The tree had a plentiful 

 " crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared upon it ; but the 

 "fruit was manifestly injured by this foul incumbrance. It 

 "remained all the summer, still increasing, and loaded the 

 " woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled 

 " off great quantities by handfuls ; but it was so slimy and 

 " tenacious that it could by no means be cleared. The grapes 

 " never filled to their natural perfection, but turned watery and 

 " vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of M. de Reaumur, ^ 

 " I found this matter perfectly described and accounted for. 

 " Those husky shells, which I had observed, were no other than 

 " the female coccus, from whose sides this cotton-like substance 

 "exsudes, and serves as a covering and security for their eggs." 



To this account I think proper to add, that, though the female 

 cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place to which 

 they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that the black 

 dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the females, 

 which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though the utmost 

 severity of our winter did not destroy these insects, yet the 

 attention of the gardener in a summer or two has entirely 

 relieved my vine from this filthy annoyance. 



As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed 

 from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I 

 shall here mention an emigration of small aphides, which was 

 observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August 

 the 1st, 1785. 



' [ffist. des Insectes, vol. iv., tab. vi., figs. 5-7.] 



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